Overview of Moving the Central Agent Base Directory Outside Oracle Middleware Home

In Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.1) and 12c Release 2 (12.1.0.2), by default the agent base directory of the central agent is maintained inside the Oracle Middleware Home (middleware home). Central agent is the Oracle Management Agent that is deployed by default with the first Oracle Management Service.

However, in Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 3 (12.1.0.3) or higher, Oracle strongly recommends that you maintain the agent base directory outside the middleware home, although you can choose to maintain it inside the middleware home. Each 13c upgrade is an out-of-place upgrade that results in a new middleware home created for the upgraded release. By maintaining the agent base directory outside the middleware home, you do not have any dependency on the previous release's middleware home, and therefore, you can conveniently delete the previous releases's middleware home when it is not needed.

Therefore, when you install a new 12c Release 4 (12.1.0.4), 12c Release 5 (12.1.0.5), or 13 Release 1 OMS, you will see the agent base directory created outside the middleware home by default (unless you chose to maintain it inside the middleware home). Similarly, when you upgrade from a newly installed 12c Release 4 (12.1.0.4), or 12c Release 5 (12.1.0.5), or 13c Release 1 OMS to 13c Release 2, you will see the agent base directory upgraded outside the middleware home by default (unless you chose to maintain it inside the middleware home in the previous releases).

However, when you upgrade from 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.1) to 12c Release 2 (12.1.0.2) or 12c Release 3 (12.1.0.3), and then upgrade to 12c Release 4 (12.1.0.4) or 12c Release 5 (12.1.0.5), you will continue to see the agent base directory inside the middleware home (unless you had already migrated it outside the middleware home). You can choose to migrate the agent base directory to a location outside the middleware if you want.

Note that moving the agent base directory of a central agent outside the Oracle Middleware home is a one-time activity. Once the agent base directory of a central agent is moved outside the middleware home, it remains at the same location even after subsequent upgrades.

If a central agent was upgraded to 12.1.0.2 (from 12.1.0.1) or 12.1.0.3 (from 12.1.0.1 or 12.1.0.2), and you want to move the agent base directory of the central agent outside the Oracle Middleware home, then follow the instructions outlined in the My Oracle Support note 1520010.1.

If you want to move the agent base directory of a 12.1.0.5 or 12.1.0.4 central agent (which was initially of version 12.1.0.1, then upgraded to 12.1.0.2, 12.1.0.3, and then again upgraded to 12.1.0.4 or 12.1.0.5, respectively) to a location outside the middleware home, follow these steps:

Important:

Moving the agent base directory is recommended only for central agents (on all platforms, including Microsoft Windows), and not recommended for standalone Management Agents.